Our historic campus is just reaching its prime.
A building boom is afoot at William & Mary. The College's first such boom was in the late 1600s and early 1700s. This one began in 2000. Since the turn of the century, 21 buildings on the main campus and five more at VIMS, a total of 1.5 million square feet, have been built or renovated.
If you've recently driven down Jamestown Road, you can't have missed Miller Hall, the gorgeous new home of our Mason School of Business, all 166,000 square feet of it. Located near the Lake Matoaka Amphitheater (itself beautifully restored a few years ago), Miller Hall now defines the southwestern corner of the campus.
Further east on Jamestown Road are phases 1 and 2 of the new Integrated Science Center. ISC 1 opened in summer 2008. ISC 2 opened last spring. Together, they total more than 160,000 square feet of state-of-the-art space for the chemistry, psychology and biology departments, providing easy opportunities for interdisciplinary work. ISC Phase 3 is being designed and awaits funding.
The university's main library - Swem - has undergone a massive renovation and expansion. We have rebuilt the student recreation center, created an elegant new place for undergraduate admission in the College's old bookstore on Richmond Road, finished a long overdue renovation of the Commons Dining Hall (the "Caf"), constructed the splendid Jamestown Road dorms, and added a powerful new home for Tribe Football at the Laycock Center. Renovation and expansion are underway at our physics building, Small Hall. Construction is underway on a long-awaited facility for career counseling and placement, the Cohen Center.
Since 2000, the Law School has completely renovated its 1980 facility on South Henry Street, added a new wing of classrooms and offices, and built the splendid Wolf Law Library. We're just months away from completion of a marvelous new building for William & Mary's School of Education, on the site of the old Sentara Williamsburg Community Hospital. When finished in 2010, this 113,000 square-foot building will bring all of the Education School's activities under one roof for the first time ever. The recently completed Andrews Hall and Seawater Research Laboratory at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science have made a huge difference for the better.
This account of the College's building boom is hardly complete, but the picture is clear. While much remains to be done to bring our facilities fully into the 21st century, a vast amount has been accomplished since the turn of the century.
But it is people, not facilities, who are the mortar that holds an institution together. Without talented people of good character and high ambition, new buildings would avail us little. The people of William & Mary have been the College's abiding strength since 1693.
